Presentation

The UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Dialogue on Heritages of Portuguese Influence [Patrimónios] was established in 2018, as a result of the intersection between the homonymous PhD program, created in 2010, and the inscription of the "University of Coimbra: Alta and Sofia" on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2013.

The Chair Patrimónios has as its goals the interdisciplinary education and research integrated within cooperation contexts concerning the assets that, as active cultural heritages (architecture, arts, language, literature, landscape, urbanism), encourage convergences in the recognition of common values among communities where forms of Portuguese presence have existed or still exist. The focus is not on the Portuguese presence itself but on the variety of cultural outcomes it generated worldwide, recognizing the role of the other, the co-constitution and multidirectionality of North-South and South-South relations, the consequences of the movements and processes of violent subjugation implicit in emigration and colonization phenomena, and also the new or renewed forms of post-colonial domination.

This is a project that covers various disciplines and geographies, mobilizes multiple forms of knowledge and institutions, and promotes a critical and plural perspective on cultural heritage and its importance for understanding the past, questioning the present, and, in a collaborative and open dialogue, imagining futures based on sustainable development processes. Active cooperation in the areas of education, training and research around cultural heritage are the main purposes of Patrimónios, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda.